This couple heats their home using a garden shed data center filled with Raspberry Pi boards – saving a fortune In brief: A couple in the UK has become the first people in the country to heat their home using a small data center in their shed, part of a trial scheme for low-income households to transition to net zero. The system uses clusters of 56 Raspberry Pi boards, and has reduced the home's heating bills to just £40 ($52) per month. Terrence and Lesley Bridges, an Essex-based couple, have become the first people to use the HeatHub system, reports the BBC. Developed by Thermify and part of the UK Power Networks' SHIELD project, the shed-based data center isn't designed to run AI workloads – these are Raspberry Pis, not Nvidia GPUs – but it can still be used to run apps or analyze large volumes of data. Thermify co-founder and CEO Travis Theune says the installation will eventually become part of a remote and distributed data center, one of many locations processing customer data. Clients will pay HeatHub for processing their data – once the pilot phase ends. The data center shed (Ben Schofield) Theune said the system provides both clean and affordable energy. By transferring the heat from the server workloads to the Bridges' hot water system, the couple's energy bills have dropped from £375 ($492) a month down to as low as £40. The system is especially beneficial for Lesley Bridges, who has spinal stenosis and is in "a lot of pain" when it gets colder. While it sounds like an enticing way of reducing energy bills, homemade data centers aren't really something a person can safely or cheaply recreate themself. The setup in the trial uses professionally managed servers, proper heat-exchange systems, controlled ventilation, and a business model where the operator, not the homeowner, typically pays for the electricity. A DIY version means the creator would be paying to run power-hungry computers just to get heat, which could cost far more than it saves. There are also legal, insurance, building permit, and liability issues – if your improvised heat-capture system causes a fire, moisture damage, or equipment failure, you may not be covered. A major practical concern is electrical load. UK homes typically have a 60 – 100A main fuse. A rack of servers can easily draw several kilowatts continuously, and even a handful of powerful machines can push a home's electrical system close to its limits. Overloading circuits, using inadequate cabling, or running multiple high-load devices on the same ring circuit can lead to overheating, tripped breakers, or, in the worst case, a fire. The trial's setup would have been installed with proper electrical engineering and safety systems, something a DIY approach cannot easily guarantee. We've seen data-center heat used for practical purposes like this before. In 2023, a washing machine-sized data center was installed at a public swimming pool in the UK. The heat it generated was used to keep the pool at about 86 degrees Fahrenheit for 60% of the time.
